Fabric softener as Defoamer

I tried a few different brands and found out that some work and some do not. So far "Gain" seems to work the best. Do any of you use fabric softeners on your portables and if so, do you have a preference?

Grutzy.....Using Fabric Softener as a defoamer is scientifically sound if it is cost effective for your application. Adding a tea-spoon of table salt in your return tank is just as good. better still would be to use Liquid Tide ( He for front load washers ) as your cleaning agent ( some have Fabreeze in the receipe ) Tide does not foam up thus reducing your need for any defoamers.

Most fabric softeners are cationic and will interfere with the performance of your cleaning agents that are anionic or non-ionic. These products will also interfere with the stain protection of the carpet.

I am so fed up of all the know it alls regarding carpets, carpet cleaning and chemistry. How easy people get sucked into the big chemical companies way of trickery is far beyond belief . The schools are almost empty with no students roaming the classrooms for a tiny bit of education. Learn some Chemistry and physics and you too will be using alternative better and cheaper cleaning agents. REMEMBER.....the best cleaning agent is WATER..... and only WATER.....better still.....HOT  WATER.  But chemical companies cannot market just water so they have to add something to it.....ever look at the ingrediants to your so called superior carpet cleaning chemicals.....93 % to 97 % water

Grutzy... If you have a portable with an aggitator brush, go give a free demo at any Chinese restaurant and use only hot tap water, and see what happens . I have also used a Steamon Demon with only hot water, and the results were the same.....A CLEAN CARPET. Chemicals or soaps only suspend soil and grime for a short time period, the water is the carrier. I have cleaned hundreds of thousands of sq. feet of carpet over the last almost 40 years using only hot water.

I have to agree with Grutzy on this one.

Water alone can not possibly remove all of the uglies from a carpet (especially oil based matter).

Knowing that nightrider uses only hot water to clean carpets I wouldn't hire him as my professional carpet cleaner. As a customer I would feel like I was getting ripped off.

When nightrider starts defaming marketing and sales it's time to bring back the 'Hide' commercial. Since ineffective cleaning products such as water-only will only 'Hide' the soil we should call it what it really is. In fact, so many professional carpet cleaners do just that on a regular basis. If the customer only understood they would feel ripped off.

Marketing and sales is what keeps the world churning and prospering. The funny thing is nightrider is the KING of marketing and sales and has all the answers when he is selling but he is too cheap and not willing to share his fortune when actually using products.

Maybe we need General Lee to step in and teach us about surface tension to prove the worthiness of a good detergent.

Nice to see nightrider sharpening his axe and coming back with his love and hate answers to our questions.